wr250X Tires

nobody had anything to say about the duros huh , well I went for em , and they are sweet , and the price is fantastic

debaisley wrote:

nobody had anything to say about the duros huh , well I went for em , and they are sweet , and the price is fantastic

Can you follow-up with a write-up here once you've put some miles/kms on them? I'm interrested in them....

just put a kenda s/t cruiser tire on mine. hooks up great offroad i can pull wheelies on the trails fairly easy. 65 shipped for the tire, fairly round but works great for stunting street riding and hooks up way better for trail riding that the junk stocker. Front tire hates mud tho i know that. need a more semi aggressive tire for the front for trails, dont want to jeopardize my stoppies tho.

My opinion on WR-250X tires:

I bought my 2008 WR-250X used this past December, with 3,911 miles showing on the odometer.
The stock Bridgestone BT090 tires (and I assume they were the original tires off the showroom) were in good condition on the front, and about 95% worn down to the wear bars on the rear.
Riding the bike about 10 times finished-off the rear.
Considering that somebody else wore them out for me, the bike didn't feel too badly, with my chief gripe being the noticable worn flat spot in the middle of the rear tire (from lots of straight-up-and-down riding) that I could feel.

Last month, after the winter layover, I mounted my favorite sportbike tires:
Michelin Pilot Powers.
My WR-250X is a 100% street bike, and I have no desire whatsoever to ride it off-road - that's what my 2009 Yamaha WR-250F is for.
My WR-250X is, literally, a light-weight sport bike.
In my opinion, riding a bike off-road that's equipped with street tires is like going mountain climbing wearing ice skates, and I have no desire to trade pavement grip for off-road grip by mounting some kind of wanna-be motard tire.
That's basically it for me. :)
So, Michelin Pilot powers it is, then.

I'm not a fan of mounting wider-than-stock tires to my bikes, but if I wanted to use Pilot Powers, I had no choice since the narrowest rear Michelin offers is a 150/60ZR17, and the stock size is 140/70ZR17.
The front Pilot Power is labeled the same as the stock 110/70ZR17, at least, and the Michelin USA website recommends these tires as direct replacement for the WR-250X, so, I went for it.
I mounted them myself with the same tools I use on my dirt bike, balanced them wth the same static balancer I've been using since about 1998, and hit the road.

Results?
Awesome, in one word.
A couple shakedown rides had me settling on 21 psi per tire and pulling the fork tubes up in the clamps about three millimeters since the rear felt a bit lower than before (or the front felt taller - take your pick).
Not really surprised I felt the need to make the front height change since the tires are from a different manufacturer with the rear being a different size.

Once I had my setup finalized, I really got a feel for how these tires felt on my WR-250X.
Basically, if you ride your WR-250X as a sportbike like I do, you'll be in heaven.
Outright grip is very high, indeed, giving massive confidence to do, basically, whatever you want.
The tires give the feeling that you'd have to do something very stupid in order to break their grip on the road.
They are very compliant on the bumps and ripples and pavement cracks, something that not only makes the ride more comfy for your butt, but also (much more importantly), lends even more grip on the road by absorbing and conforming to these pavement irregularities instead of skipping over them as a stiffer tire would do.
A Dunlop D208SM is like the latter.
Boo.

On top of that, I get the feeling these tires will last longer than the stock BT090s, too.
What a deal. :)

Has anyone tried the BT-003 yet? They have a 140/70R17 and for the time being, I'll be needing just a rear and sticking mostly to the street until later this year when I go with some Distanzias.

Ushuaia Or Bust wrote:

Has anyone tried the BT-003 yet? They have a 140/70R17 and for the time being, I'll be needing just a rear and sticking mostly to the street until later this year when I go with some Distanzias.

Got them on right now.
Not a bad tire, I think I'll go back to distanzia's next round though

f3joel wrote:

Ushuaia Or Bust wrote:

Has anyone tried the BT-003 yet? They have a 140/70R17 and for the time being, I'll be needing just a rear and sticking mostly to the street until later this year when I go with some Distanzias.

Got them on right now.
Not a bad tire, I think I'll go back to distanzia's next round though

Is that because you use them for dirt too, or are they actually grippier on pavement? Would be interesting because there would be less rubber touching pavement with the grooves.

Do you guys replace the tubes with new tires? If you get a diffrent sized rear tire do you need to get a larger tube?

003's in a 150 rear

Howd you make your axel sliders? I was looking at a long threded rod and thinking about getting wheels and some nylon lock nuts. any tips? have you "tested" yours yet?

basically that. long threaded rod, couple of washers, couple of nuts and some skateboard wheels.

haven't been tested, knock on wood

Time to start adding to this tire thread I guess. :) Replaced the stock rear tire on my R/X with another X rear tire with around ~150 miles on it. Old one was down past the wear bars and turning into a slick, PO said it was original to his X and had about 6500 miles on it so probably 7000 now.


Mileage is 25,888. Update in a couple months I hope :)

Im getting pretty excited about replacing my tires once the stocks wear out. I have no previous knowledge of good handling street tire.....but I been thinkin alot about these.....anybody have and opinion???
Continental Contiforce SM Supermoto Tire

I notice most people posting about tires are using them on the track, anyone have strictly street tire experience? A lot of the tires mentioned on this thread make great track tires, what is the best street tire?
Coming from smaller motards my experience with the IRC tires have been good on the street and they are available in our stock size and are standard on the Klx250 motard, suprised nobody on here mentions them. The picture below is what I am running currently on my Derbi supermotard:

I've got IRC RX-01's on my WR250RX, they were inexpensive & installed on the rims. The tires are okay for commuting, and they seem fine in the rain. I expected that center gap on the front to follow tar snakes etc but it's not too bad. I'm a pretty conservative rider, YMMV.

Thanks for the input! I have been using the irc on my Derbi motard for almost 2k miles in many conditions and they have worked great. They are plenty soft and seem to be pretty durable as well. Grip has been a huge step up from the stock tires that came on the bike. It's good to hear that these tires will also work well on the larger heavier, more powerful WRX as well.

BTW, I saw the other post on the duro tires and just realized I have a brand new set of those tires that were going to go on my other bike, but since my stock WRX tires are toast after doing 600 miles this past weekend they are going on the WRX this week. I will update you guys on performance, wear, etc.....

Also, did anyone notice that Continental now makes supermoto tires, in two different compounds, for 250cc and under bikes now?!! I know that the size is slightly smaller than the stock WRX, 100 front and 130 rear, but this could be a good thing performance wise for us. Everyone on here seems to think that bigger is better when it comes to tires, but to do with more what can be done with less is pure vanity. I might just order a set to try out since I have always done more with less.

I just installed the Continental Conti Force SM on my WRX on ZED's recommendation (page 1) and so far they feel great.
They ride much better (smoother) than stock and follow cracks, grooves, and ruts way less. They also seem to lean a bit quicker and want to fall over more than the stockers. The 120/70-17 and 150/60-17 tires fit great and were easy to install. The first bead went on without even needing any tools!
I can't comment on traction too much as I have been taking it easy so far but the chicken strips are almost gone after about 100kms and they feel pretty good initially. The back tire feels harder to lock up and won't skid under engine braking anymore. The one area they are worse on is painted lines on the road. They squirm a bit there.

If they last as long or longer than the stockers I will be happy!

Well I just ordered up a set of Duro's and will be getting them put on this Saturday. I will make it a point to post back and let you know how I like them. I wanted different ones but with just buying the bike this year it was not in the budget....

I mounted the duro's last week and initial reaction is "these feel a lot heavier than the stock tires" I know that I should've found a scale to weigh them in comparison to the stock but I didn't have one handy. Will definitely try to get a weight on them when I change tires next time. Initial feel is smooth on the road, after I get some miles on them and really ride them I will post observations and feel.

Update: I rode my 15 mile each way freeway commute today and the heavier Duro tires feel much more stable at speed on the freeway. The way back was wet and the extra stability really showed and gave me a safer ride home in tough conditions.

Update #2 finally got a chance to do mountain TT riding last weekend and I am not diggin the Duro's for agressive riding. Looking to replace these with some softer tires very soon.

So far
Stock:
Pros: really good dry traction
Cons: limited lifespan

Duro:
Pros: cheap, available in stock size, great for commuting
Cons: heavier than stock (adds stability), not the softest tire so not the best for canyon carving.

Thanks twinturba..... I wouldn't think they could weigh more than the ones that came on my used bike.


I ride much more on streets than dirt so I can't wait to lose the dirt tires.

Update: Tires didn't come in they are now looking at a Monday install.

Update 2: Well got them on and it looked like rain so I was going to just drive home. That was untill I started having more fun than I ever have on the bike. The tires grip great and it just "feels right" in the corners. When I go to stop fast the bike stops... I even took the long way in to work today.

I'll post back after I put some miles on them but for $198 intalled and ballanced I'm loving them so far.

I have over 400 miles on the new Duro's and so far I like them. They do take a little time to warm up but when they are they grip good for a low cost tire. I will get a softer rubber for my next set but for the price these may be hard to beat. Man the front end is so much lighter

I was gonna go with the Conti SM's on Zed's suggestion but he never called me back today and I just realized I have some spare Michelin Pilot race take-off front tires and I know the Michelin dealer at the track so I figured I could go with the Michelin Man and just have to buy a rear tire cause for me the fronts are essentially free. If they are good enough for roadracing then they should be OK for my street hooligan riding and only having to buy one tire makes the cost a lot more attractive.

FWIW I got over 8000 km on the OEM rear and the OEM front is still in reasonable condition. Yes the rear tire is completely shagged now but it did its duty so it can go to the great tire pile in the sky now.

The laugh I got at my local shop after installing "Shit-ko" tires should have been a clue...

Wow. Super heavy, fall into corners, shitty braking, worse acceleration, sh*tko traction (crappy Korean rubber), and really hard on stock gearing.

Then 26 miles, or 42km for you canucks! into my ride on the freeway, at around 78mph, knobbies start popping off like popcorn kernels!!!

Lost 7 knobbs in the middle tread pattern to be exact... Um thinking the reflector dots ripped them off... I will post a pic.

Which, at that speed felt like riding on snow next to Soccer Moms, while stayin alive on the "Daytona I-5."

I still ride them around town... Trying to get my $80 worth. Also noticed over 15mpg drop in fuel economy.

Used to get 75-100 miles per tank with Distanzias, now I'm lucky to get about 62 miles per tank.


So, IMO, if you want to live, retain your stock gearing and good gas mileage, stay away from the properly nik-named SHITKO'S!

Which Shinko's are you running? Since you said knobs I'm assuming the 244's? I managed 100x that mileage without issue... Can't be that bad if you're still riding on them...


ANYWAYS, mileage is 29,35x and I'm at the wear bars front and rear on my BT090's. Unknown mileage on the front, but based on the previous owner of the wheels' estimate it has around 10k on it. The rear has about 4000. Neither is completely shot, but are noticeably worse than before. Still debating on a replacement tire, I've been happy with the OE tires so far and might just order a new rear to go with the barely worn front I have sitting in the basement or a set of the Duro's. Might also get prepped for winter with a set of sorta-knobs like the Shinko 244's or 705's, don't want to lose the good street handling but the roads are gonna get dirty, salty, sandy, and gross most of the time soon so a knobs might be a better choice...

So are you guys running tubes in all these radial tires?

Being that we have spoked wheels, yes. It is required unless you've done some sort of tubeless conversion. Otherwise the air would leak out around the spokes.